Stuart Merrill
Stuart Fitzrandolph Merrill (August 1, 1863 - December 1, 1915) was an American poet, who wrote mostly in the French language. He belonged to the Symbolist school. His principal books of poetry were Les Gammes (1887), Les Fastes (1891), and Petits Poèmes d'Automne (1895). Life Merrill was born August 1, 1863, in the village of Hempstead, New York, the product of a conservative, wealthy, Protestant upbringing. In 1866, his father George received a diplomatic appointment to Paris, where Merrill would learn French and live for the next 19 years. Stéphane Mallarmé was one of Merrill’s school instructors. His classmates included future symbolists René Ghil and Pierre Quillard. Merrill ran a weekly journal, Le fou, before returning to the United States in 1884 to attend law school. On April 15, 1887, Merrill went to Madison Square Theater in New York to hear Walt Whitman give his famous "Death of Abraham Lincoln" lecture. Afterwards, Merrill had the opportunity to meet Whitman, an experience he later recorded in the magazine "Le Masque."Stuart Merrill, Walt Whitman (Toronto: Henry S. Saunders, 1922) Also in 1887, Merrill's debut collection of poems, Les gammes, was published in Paris, and received wide critical acclaim in Europe. As his literary career took off he participated in radical political causes, siding with the anarchists in the famous Haymarket riots. When George Bernard Shaw attempted to circulate a petition in London calling for the release of Oscar Wilde, imprisoned for homosexuality, Merrill made a similar attempt to get notable artists and intellectuals to sign a similar petition in the United States. Although Merrill's father disinherited him for his politics, his mother would continue to support him financially throughout his life. In 1890, Merrill published Pastels in Prose, a collection of his translations of French prose poems. This was his only book ever to be published in America. The same year, he returned to Europe permanently and he married in 1891. For the years 1893–1908, his address was 53 Quai de Bourbon, Île Saint-Louis, Paris. Several more books, including Les fastes in 1891 and Petits poèmes d’automne in 1895, were published before his death from heart disease in Versaille in 1915. Recognition In 1927 a small traffic way in the 17th arrondissement of Paris of Paris was named Place Stuart-Merrill. Publications * Les gammes (The Ranges), Vanier, Paris, 1887 * Pastels en Prose, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1890 * Les Fastes (The Record), 1891 * Petits Poèmes d'Automne (Little Autumnal Poems), 1895 * Les quatre saisons (The Four Seasons), Mercure de France, Paris, 1900 * Walt Whitman, Henry S. Saunders, 1922 * Prose et vers : œuvres posthumes (Prose and Verse: Posthumous Works), A. Messein, Paris, 1925 * The White Tomb: Selected writing, Talisman House, 1999 See also *List of U.S. poets *Poets of other languages References External links ;Books * *Stuart Merrill at Amazon.com ;Audio / video * ;About Category:1863 births Category:1915 deaths Category:People from Hempstead (village), New York Category:French-language poets Category:American male poets Category:Symbolist poets Category:French–English translators Category:19th-century translators Category:19th-century male writers Category:People from Nassau County, New York Category:American poets Category:19th-century poets Category:Poets